Source: cityandstateny.com 9/22/23
On Sept. 17, 2021, when I was running the notorious Rikers Island jails, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More act into law, reducing parole revocations for non-criminal, technical violations.
When she did so, she applied the act retroactively to all people incarcerated for 30 days or more for parole violations like drug use, missed appointments and curfew violations. Unfortunately, Isaabdul Karim had only been incarcerated for 29 days, missing his release opportunity by a single day. Two days later, Mr. Karim died of COVID-19 in a Rikers Island jail.
Mr. Karim is hardly alone. In fact, the first two people to die of COVID in Rikers – Raymond Rivera and Michael Tyson – were also incarcerated for violating parole rules for missing appointments and leaving a drug program without permission.
There are nearly 4 million people under community supervision in the United States, almost twice as many as are incarcerated here. A quarter of people entering U.S. prisons are incarcerated not for committing a new crime, but for violating some condition of community supervision, at an annual cost to taxpayers of $2.8 billion.
Research now shows that the harm caused by probation and parole is very real and not outweighed by their illusory benefits. It is high time policy makers either substantially reduce the size and punitiveness of “mass supervision” or eliminate supervision programs like probation and parole entirely.
I don’t think having so many people in jail is good for the economy. It hurts communities. Poverty and dysfunction in family units soon follow. It’s also well documented that children tend to do better in stable family units. These are invariably disturbed when a father becomes incarcerated.
Wisconsin extended supervision is wonderful…..eyes rolling! After 1.5 years into my 3 years I got cought with a smart phone and sent back to prison. The phone was clean, no CP. Even after the parole agent told me that, people like you don’t change. That was the last I saw of that agent. Guess she didn’t want to eat her words. But what I loved of probation….when getting ready to leave prison for my 3 years of supervision, I got asked where I would like to live. I said my house, which I legally can live. Probation told me….too close to schools…..where else??? My parents house was too close to a golf course. No TLP for me because I had a good paying job. So where did I live?????? In my Jeep in a Walmart parking lot!!! Yep! Had a house with mortgage I was paying….while homeless! I could go to the house once a week for 4 hours to do housework. Had to be scheduled with the PO. I had to get permission to shovel snow!!! The day I signed my probation paperwork to discharge, I told my PO off. And I moved home. Been there 2.5 years now. Haven’t had a problem!!! The only problem is probation!!!!!!!